We were lucky to catch up with Mercia Martin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mercia , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
I believe one of the greatest things my parents did for my siblings and I was instilling the value of education.
My parents come from two different backgrounds although their stories share many similarities. Both born and raised in Congo, my parents received education in our home country up until they graduated from high school. Through the grace of God and their hard work, they were able to obtain scholarships to study abroad in France. These opportunities were life changing, particularly for my father who is the only one among his siblings to graduate from high school. He went on to pursue higher education and eventually earned a PhD in organic chemistry. That pursuit of education and focus on his career path allowed him to experience different cultures through work-related travels, but also be the primary bread-winner in our household and encourage my siblings and I to study abroad for college. My mother’s journey is one that is also marked by a great deal of faith and hard work in her studies and her career field which helped provide stability in our household.
Both of them are tremendous inspirations in my life. It is through both of their sacrifices that I was blessed with the opportunity to study abroad in the United States following high school, and it is by looking back at their journeys that I was able to persevere when encountering obstacles.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hi, my name is Mercia Martin and I am a Christian, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. Professionally, I am a physical therapist with a primary emphasis on neuro rehab, as well as a community health worker and digital creator. I work for a private physical therapy clinic where I split my time between patient care and outreach work. I help individuals recover after a traumatic, acquired, or congenital neurological injury such as a stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and many others. I use function driven therapeutic activity and exercises along with neuromuscular re-education principles to help those individuals return to doing the activities that they love as independently as possible. I also bridge the gap between our organization and our local communities by planning community events, educating others on health & wellness, and documenting physical therapy interventions on multiple social media platforms. Most recently, I became a podcaster and published a complete season of the ‘Spero means Hope’ podcast where I interview patients, healthcare professionals and community members and provide them with a platform where they can share their stories.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The other day, I was listening to an amazing podcast episode by ‘The Catholic Therapist’ during which the hosts discusses how our mind sometimes holds on to lies we believe about ourselves, and that at the core of every fear or anxiety is usually a lie we believe to be true. I’ve been reflecting a lot on this statement. As someone who has dealt with anxiety in the past, I’ve seen how crippling it can be. I have often felt overwhelmed at the sight of my to do list and believed that this propensity to experience stress and anxiety was just a part of me, a personality trait to live with. In this season of life, I have been unlearning that very thing.
How we define ourselves and the truths that we believe about ourselves can greatly influence our actions and shape the trajectory of our lives. Behind the stress caused by my to do list were the lies that “I am not strong enough to handle this”, “I cannot do this”, or that “I am doing a terrible job at this”. Once I realized that those lies had been fueling my inner fears, it began easier to combat stress and move into action, one task at a time. How we define ourselves and what we allow to be our primary identity is of the utmost importance. We are multi-faceted individuals made of the intersections of the different realms of our lives: our faith, our profession, our hobbies, our relationships, our personality traits, etc. But what truly defines us? Where does our primary identity lies?
For me, as a Christian, I wish to primarily be defined by my Faith in Christ. This very Faith influences how I view others and why I seek to extend grace, and share kindness to those around me. Yet, so often, I fall short and let outside stressors become so prominent that I lose sight of my anchor. Life is a journey of daily choosing how we wish to be defined, and leaning into our identity.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
To succeed in physical therapy and in the field of public health in general, I believe one must be fueled by a love for people. That passion for helping others is quintessential to the profession and should be at the cornerstone of healthcare. Physical therapy is a people-centered profession, and I believe patients can tell the difference when a provider genuinely cares about them.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @thegratefulpt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegratefulpt/